firefighters used an axe to break through the roof of a home that's completely under water. they rescued a man and his dogs who were trapped inside. at least 75 people were rescued from rooftops of their homes after hurricane isaac's floodwaters poured over an 18- mile stretch of levee in plaquemines parish outside new orleans. sheryl bricks says her entire town is wiped out. >> it's horrible. everybody's house is gone. >> reporter: sharon sylvia and her family tried to drive away from the rising water, but it was rain doing hard. they were stranded until a boat picked them up and got them to safety. >> they took us out of the attack into the boat -- out of the attic into the boat. it's very bad down there, very bad. >> reporter: the giant storm has been churning over land dumping as much as an inch of rain per hour. winds that topped 80 miles per hour knocked down trees and power lines leaving more than a half million people without power in southern louisiana.

flooding and wind damage like this huge tree toppled across a street just outside the french quarter is expected throughout the evening. one reason the mayor of new orleans has issued a dusk to dawn curfew. >> the wind has been real intense. the roof has been feeling like it want to pull off, but overall i think we're going to make it. >> reporter: new orleans' rebuilt levee system is holding up, but the army corps of engineers is expected to remain on high alert throughout the night. here is a live look down the french quarter. you can see it's pretty much deserted. the mayor of new orleans has placed nearly 3,000 law enforcement personnel on these streets. that's local police officers as well as national guards members. they are determined, in fact, to keep law and order in this city until isaac passes. reporting live in new orleans i'm karen brown. back to you. >> zero doll rabbits for possible -- tolerance for possible looters. let's go to scott broom live

from biloxi, mississippi tonight. what's the story there? >> reporter: tell you what, we're right in the midst of tropical storm storm force squall that's going through, a tornado warning just down the road from biloxi in gulf shores and so it's still rough. up and down the coast even over here in mississippi it's still rough as these lines of squalls related to this storm. as you can see they continue to pound this place. mississippi again is looking at flooding on the scale as they have in louisiana maybe up to 20 inches of rain before all of this is over. take a look at some of the pictures from here to downtown biloxi we shot a while ago. storm surge because of the persistent force of this storm and how slow it's within moving has come up here onto casino row in biloxi and has closed u.s. highway 90 in lots and lots of different locations. so this is the just a louisiana story. it's a mississippi story and it's an alabama story as well.

this weather is rough. reporting live in biloxi scott broom, 9 news now. >> i can only sympathize just how wet you are. we thank you for that good work. let's talk about exactly what's going on with this storm, topper, because we know that it's coming our way, but it's going to be there a minute and meander into the middle of the country. >> silver lining, rainfall in the midwest and ultimately it could bring us some showers and storms. the track is 55 miles, 50 miles west of new orleans right now, still packing winds at 70 miles per hour, movement northwest at 6. so it is moving painfully slowly. here's the deal. it's going to probably take all of tomorrow afternoon to get out of louisiana. that means just half rains continues through louisiana. it will slowly pull away from the coast. then some of the heavy rain will end up in northeast texas. after that friday afternoon we're about ready to clear the state of arkansas. then it begins to accelerate north and east.

again this is the silver lining, if you will, because this is the much needed drought areas of missouri, illinois and indiana. look at the bands of rain continuing. scott was at biloxi, mississippi, a huge band going through right now and still some rains wrap back around through baton rouge, morgan city and lake charles. we'll come back, talk about some fun facts about isaac and just how he will impact our weekend weather. we move on to the 2012 republican national convention right now, a live look inside the tampa bay forum in tampa, florida. after the rousing speeches from ann romney and chris christie last night republicans say their party is energized and as reporter randall pinkston explains, vice presidential paul ryan is expected to keep the momentum going as he accepts his nomination later tonight. >> reporter: paul ryan and family at the stage where they

will accept their party's nomination for vice president. wisconsin delegate are getting their convention hall signs ready and say their conservative congressman is the perfect complement to mitt romney. >> he is the new generation and what a great leader have in paul ryan. >> reporter: democrats say ryan's budget plan will devastate medicare, but gop delegates here say it's time to make tough choices. >> i think people are tired of having things sugarcoated and i don't think we want to be dalessed anymore. i think we -- dazzled anymore. i think we want to be told the truth. >> reporter: brian's wife appeared this morning at a breakfast with ann romney. >> wasn't ann great last night. >> reporter: ann romney spoke lovingly about her husband and electrified the convention hall. >> i thought she was wonderful. >> she's a real person. >> reporter: some of the focus shifts to foreign policy when senator john mccain and former secretary of state condoleezza rice take the stage. polls show voters trust

president obama more than romney to handle international affairs, but rice is ready to argue the republican white house hopeful will make a better commander in chief. >> a president romney i think would understand american exceptionalism, would not be afraid to lead from in front. >> reporter: today romney spoke with veterans in indianapolis. he delivers his acceptance speech tomorrow night. >> joining us to talk more about what is coming out of the convention but from the perspective of the other side is mo leevi, democratic strategist, welcome. thanks for getting in here. first are the republicans from your perspective doing what they have to do to humanize mitt romney? it has become a cliche now and what does that do to what your convention will look like in a couple of weeks? >> no short answer. they're not doing what they need to do to humanize mitt

romney. i think ann romney gave probably the best speech of the night and supposed a different side of him most people haven't, but -- showed a different side of him most people haven't, but what was amazing to me was virtually every other speaker last night made just a bare passing mention of mitt romney. they weren't trying to introduce him to the country. they were focusing all their attention on beating up president obama and ignoring their own candidate. i thought it was a big missed opportunity. >> you can make the argument that chris christie was burnishing his own credentials sort of breaking his arm patting himself on the back for a good part of that speech, put the mitt romney thing kind of at the end and felt a little tacked on. >> i think it was at minute 17 of his 20 minute speech was the first and only time he mentioned mitt romney. >> considering the campaign so far being so nasty they've bet up on the president a bit but they haven't gone after him whole hog, have they? i thought we'd get more red meat at this conversation. >> that's all you heard last

night speaker after speaker. attacks on the president of the united states. there was no vision of what the republican alternative would be, none whatsoever. i think last night was the night to do. it it was when you got to begin to introduce people when they start to tune in. >> paul ryan has to reintroduce himself to america tonight as they say. will he talk lore about mitt romney or is it all about paul -- more about mitt romney or is it all about paul ryan tonight? >> i would expect the vice presidential nominee a bit, but he as well has been spending more time talking about barack obama than he has been about either mitt romney or paul ryan and at some point voters are going to say okay, guys, i get. it you don't like the president. at are you going to give me and they still haven't done that. >> what do you make of the fact president obama has been campaigning out there during the convention which goes against the tradition of taking some time off as the other side has its convention? >> in recent cycles you've seen candidates on both sides do this a bit more. it's smart. the president needs to keep his

own voters energized. he's talking to young voters which were an important part of his coalition in 2008, not letting the other side just beat up on him. he's making his own case and contrast and i think that's a smart thing to do. >> they'll do the same thing when you have your convention. >> that's great. let the debates begin. >> our coverage of the 2012 republican national convention continues in just a couple minutes when anchor lesli foster goes one on one with the first ahead hopeful ann romney. you'll want to stick around for that. >> right after the break dramatic 911 tapes from last week's boat collision in pasadena.

tonight the dramatic 911 tapes from last week's boat collision on the magothy river in pasadena, maryland. >> boat accident right out front. people went flying. >> calm down. how many folks were involved?

>> two boats. >> how many people did you see go into the ter? >> i saw two people go flying. i don't know. they may be okay. they may not. i'm not sure. >> it was a rough night. now maryland state dell get don dwyer admits he was drinking before operating the motorboat that collided with another vessel. dwyer and five others including three kids were hospitalized after that accident. we take a live look outside right now. topper shutt will be along with your full forecast. >> and right after the break our one on one interview with the aspiring first lady ann romney.

at last night's republican convention in tampa ann romney introduced voters to the personal side of her husband mitt romney. mitt romney, father of five, husband of 43 years. now her message was aimed straight at women, a voting block recent polls show mr. romney struggling to get ahold of. our lesli foster is joined by mrs. romney live until florida. >> reporter: thank you for joining us tonight, mrs. romney. >> thank you. >> reporter: your challenge last night was really to give a speech to introduce americans to the mitt romney you know and love. do you think you accomplished that last night? >> i hope. so i really enjoyed. it it was a chance for me to talk about the personal side of

a man that's been a rock in my life different get into specifics. there wasn't time to. i've struggled a lot with my health and when i have more time i go into how extraordinary he was and what a stablizing force he was in my life in my really darkest hours. >> reporter: you have as many would say an incredible love story and journey together as a couple. let's address something that all of us know. you and your husband are both very well off. you're also very generous, but some people have a sense you just aren't comfortable in that wealthy skin and that you don't have a real understanding of what ordinary americans are going through. how do you address that? >> well, that's -- i hope people understand this is that we totally recognize that we are not going through financial struggles ourself. that does not mean that we don't understand or feel sympathy for those that are and that's why we're running. we are running so that we can have better economic prosperity

for all americans. we recognize that people are really stretched right now and near very worried. we also recognize -- they're very worried. we also recognize that there are so many things happening in the economy that are keeping our job creators from really expanding and i think mitt is the man for the moment, that his world experience in the private sector has taught him so much about job creation and, you know, i think he's there for those people that are worried about their jobs. when we go out and speak, when we see people that are more comfortably well off, we say look, we are not running for you. we're running for that guy or that gal that is really struggling right now, is worried about their job or those that are not employed right now. we are thinking about them every day and we're thinking about them when mitt is drafting his policies about how he can get this economy jump started and what we can do to make sure that our children are not strapped with that just,

you know, huge debt that is burdening their future right now. >> reporter: mrs. romney, i know we're running out of time. it seems like campaigning for the white house these days is all about being an open book with your personal life. in addition to addressing your wealth, you've talked about breast cancer, living with ms. do you ever feel like closing that book a bit, taking your life back? >> you know, what i'd really like to do is just be home for a while, kick off my shoes, turn up the radio and have a great time. there's pluses and minuses doing this. there's sacrifices you make personally in your own life, but it's worth every step of the way. it's been an extraordinary experience. i've loved it truly and i'm trying not to let the negative get me down and i'm trying to ignore a lot of that negative that goes along with this because i so completely believe in my husband's message and in his ability to turn around america. so yeah, it would be nice to have it less personal, but it's

okay with me right now, too. >> reporter: mrs. romney, we appreciate your time. we wish you well in these last couple days of gop convention. be well. >> thanks so much. >> very genuine lady, liked her. let's talk about the weather which we don't like quite as much and the weekend may not be so great. >> here it's very nice tonight. >> tonight, yes. >> but not so much down in louisiana. let's start again with what is now tropical storm isaac, 50 miles west of new orleans moving very, very slowly west at 6. there's still tornado watches and warnings. they're just not done with the heavy bands of rain. look how far east the bands extend almost to the panhandle of florida, tremendous rains going through biloxi where scott broom was. we saw how tough it was for him to hear and talk to us. more rain that will wrap around and go back into western sections of louisiana. it's going to take probably a day to get out of the state of

louisiana. winds 45 mile-per-hour winds, new orleans 48 in baton rouge, 54 mile-per-hour wind just west of morgan city. fun facts, isaac, the average lifespan of a hurricane is 10 days. isaac was only a hurricane about a day, day and a half, but isaac will fit this bill. it can rain 10 to 20 billion gallons per day. that's how much energy are in these storms, create 300 billion-kilowatt hours of electricity. that's just an incredible statistic and millions of tons of air are circulated as we take the air, rise it, cool it, condense it, rain it out and do it all over again. they really are amazing systems, but they are not the nicest of systems sometimes. live look outside. i think you know where that is brought to you by michael and son, 82, dew point in the 50s, great night for football, pressure on the rise. temperatures, 76 in vienna, 79 great falls, 78 bethesda, 81 in college park. so great night for football,

maybe a light jacket at the end of the game, might be in the upper 60s by then. give the ac a rest, warmer tomorrow, a hot finish to the week, but the good news, not as humid. we'll make it through the week without too much humidity coming back in. so tomorrow green, fantastic, 9 weather alert code green friday, hot, not humid, 94, saturday 91, isolated storm possible. we'll get a little bit unsettled sunday and later day because of isaac the chance for showers and thunderstorms really goes up especially on labor day. temperatures go back in the 80s because of cloud cover. we hover around 90 once again as we get into tuesday and wednesday next week. >> thank you, sir. we'll be back in a minute.

back on 9 news now, the national zoo will open a renovated section this coming

saturday. the american trails exhibit will feature some seals, california sea lions, beavers, eagles, all kinds of wildfire. in the mailbag tonight though some mild disappointment with our coverage of now tropical storm isaac which is blasting the gulf coast with wind and rain. bob from fredericksburg says change is not our friend. your doppler radar on comcast channel 203 was super, the only up to the minute picture of current storms and weather. for some unknown reason you changed it, another example of fixing something that wasn't broke. now we have nothing that shows constant/current weather conditions in the d.c. area. boo for channel 9. well, bob, i did ask topper and now i'll try to convey the sense of exactly how he responded. dude, there is nothing on radar within 800 miles of here. you want to watch nothing or you want to watch a category 1 storm? the local radar will be back when the danger is over if there's something to show you in our neighborhood.

you satisfied? see, you got him all riled up and topper is not the only one. check out izzy mac from new orleans. it's new orleans not new orleans, please. okay, new orleans, got it. in case you don't get it, our e- mail address is mailbag@wusa9.com. give us your name and where you're writing us from. that is our report. i'll be right back here at 11:00 along with anita and topper. log on any time to www.wusa9.com. have a great evening. bye bye. president clinton: this election to me is about which... candidate is more likely to return us to full employment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper-income... people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from... the ground up, investing in innovation, education... and job training. it only works if there is a strong middle class. that's what happened when i was president. we need to keep going with his plan. president obama: i'm barack obama and...

i apove this message.

now, "entertainment tonight," the worldwide leader in entertainment news. "modern family's" strong message to mitt romney's wife. >> your favorite tv show? >> "modern family." >> why the show's co-creator is speaking about our ann romney interview. plus from tampa, the story behind her red dress and what happened back stage just before her speech. >> what do you do when you're nervous? >> i tack a deep breath. howard stern goes off on the republican convention. >> i hate abortion, oh, i love conservatives, i love the tea party. [ snoring ] >> he takes aim at jay leno. >> he's a spineless maggot. >> and his take on prince harry as a new report surface that cocaine used as a vegas party. whatever happened to these former first kids. chelsea's "vogue" makeover